"Pride and Prejudice"
An Edge/Ashley fanfic
Thanks to Christal-R, Ahhhhhh, The Rated R Superstar, xAttitudex, KxH and Kristin4 for reviewing last chapter :)
Hope you like this one,
R&R and enjoy!
Chapter 23: Rumors
"I like the fact that you're the world heavyweight champion, you know?" Ashley suddenly piped up while they were making out on the leather couch of Adam's locker room.
"Oh really?" He asked with a half amused grin before starting to kiss her again.
"Yep, cause that gives you a private locker room."
"That's definitely a good reason to focus on defending the title then." He smirked.
"Indeed it is." She giggled before startling when there was a knock on the door.
He motioned for her to not make a noise then rolled his eyes when he recognized the voice behind the door.
"Hey Edge, wanna go to eat something before the show?" Kenny asked.
"I'm not hungry." He responded with an annoyed tone, then added in a whisper audible only to Ashley "Not exactly, actually."
"Then we could-"
"It's not the right time now, okay?" He cut the younger superstar off trying to hide the amusement in his voice as she playfully hit his arm after his last remark, but he obviously failed.
"What's so funny anyway?"
"Geez Kenny, I'm trying to relax for my match, can't you just give me some time?"
"But it's just a house show, who cares."
"At the count of 3 I'll throw a boot straight in your face… 1, 2…"
"Okay, okay, I got it! Call me when you're ready then!"
"About time," The Rated R superstar rolled his eyes "that guy needs a girlfriend, I'm telling you."
"Poor thing," she giggled "don't treat him too bad."
"He's everywhere I go, I swear… no seriously, he needs a girl or I'll kill him very soon."
"Find him someone then." She playfully rolled her eyes, "I'm sure you have a lot of options."
"You jealous, punkie?" He asked with a tone of amused surprised.
"I'm just saying that I'm not the one who uses to flirt with the whole women's locker room." She pointed out.
"C'mon, I don't." He rolled his eyes.
"Oh yes, you do."
"Okay, maybe I did… but now that's different."
"How come?" She innocently asked.
"Cause now I'm taken." He softly said kissing her cheek.
"Interesting." She softly giggled.
"So where were we?" He smirked kissing her neck.
"At a very good point I'd say," she giggled "but I have to go now." And with that she gave him a quick kiss on the lips and slid from beneath him.
"Why?" He pouted.
"Cause I still have to get ready for my match and it's getting late."
"Well I can help you," he grinned "I'm very good at the undressing part."
"Oh I bet you are," she playfully rolled her eyes "but I doubt I'll make it in time for the match then."
"It's a house show, who cares" he quoted Kenny with an amused grin "I'm sure they can find a substitute or something."
"Sounds very tempting but no thanks," she giggled "this Sunday I'm finally facing Jillian and I have to be ready to get my revenge."
"Fair enough," he chuckled putting on his t-shirt again "but I blame it all on Kenny, he made us lose precious time… see? He needs to find someone instead of me to baby sit him." He rolled his eyes.
"Any suggestions?" She smiled amused.
"Can you tell Michelle?"
"I don't think so, baby." She couldn't help but laugh at the thought of the improbable match.
"Yeah, neither do I actually… but we could have gone out on a double date or something." He half grinned.
"…Speaking of," she nervously said lowering her gaze.
"What's up?" He asked with a puzzled look.
"I wanted to apologize for Paul's behavior this morning…"
"Oh," he said taken aback "but there's no need of apologizing."
"But he was rude to you, I'm sorry…"
"Don't be." He lightly chuckled, "It's not like that's your fault or something like that."
"Maybe I should have said something…" she bit her bottom lip.
"No, you shouldn't." He sighed "Listen Ash, I appreciate that but it's okay, I'm used to it. It's supposed to be this way."
"No, it's not" she protested "if you could just let the others know who you really are like you let me in…"
"They're not you." He simply replied in a sweet but firm voice meaning that the topic was closed for him.
"I need to go," she sadly sighed glancing at his wrist watch.
"C'm here," he softly said standing up and hugging her "you know that I love you, right?"
She just nodded cuddling up against his shoulder before he lifted her chin up and kissed her.
"Now go before I won't let you." He chuckled.
"Later champ." She lightly smiled after giving him a peck on the lips.
As soon as she closed the door he sighed, "You'd deserve better than me, baby."
--------
"We're still waiting, you know?" Brooke piped up as in the women's locker room the extreme exposé members were getting ready for their later dancing performance.
"Waiting for what?" The blonde distractedly asked.
"Hello?" Layla jumped in "For a detailed account of your night out with him!"
"Oh," she faked a smile "I told you he was nothing special, definitely boring. I was quite relieved when the night was over." She lied still annoyed by how things had really gone.
"Wow, that's not what I expected from him..." Brooke commented.
"But the good part is that I found out Ashley's secret, right?" She smirked.
"Yes, I can't believe it! Ashley and Jeff Hardy!"
"Pregnant of Jeff Hardy." She corrected her friend with an evil grin, "It seems that she's not the angel that she pretended to be with us."
"I don't know girls, are you sure? I mean, I'm her friend… and she never-"
"Wake up Layla, she's just a liar… and a poser. She reproached us for flirting with the superstars and then she was screwing Jeff Hardy behind his brother's back, c'mon!" Kelly insisted determined on getting one way or another her little revenge on the punk princess who had moved Adam's attention away from her in what she expected to be their night.
"She has a point." Brooke nodded.
"I really can't picture Ash doing that…" The skilled dancer trailed off.
"You don't need to picture it, I saw it. Don't you believe me?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Sure, of course I do, Kelly."
"Awesome. Then we can move on to the next step." She smirked.
"What do you have in mind?" A puzzled Brooke asked.
"Oh, we want the others too to know who the real Ashley is, right? Then we start to spread the news, we owe them." She concluded with a grin.
She had just finished her last sentence when Torrie and Maryse approached the trio.
"Hey girls, what's up?"
"Oh haven't you heard the last news yet?" Kelly said flashing a smile at the 2 Smackdown divas.
"Spill it!"
--------
"Ashley!" A voice called out her name as she was walking through the corridor to her match and the punk princess turned just in time to find herself squeezed in a tight hug from Maryse.
"Whoa, what's that for?" She asked definitely confused since they had never been close friends.
"Congratulations!" The French diva smiled, "I'm so… heureuse for you!"
"Sorry but congrat-" She hadn't time to finish her sentence since another diva ran into them.
"Oh. My. Gosh. Ashleyyy!" Torrie literally squealed, "That's awesome!!!"
"Tor, what are you-"
"Hey kid," Batista smiled joining the trio and gently caressing the dirty diva's hair "you need to be more careful now out there." He winked.
"Ashley you're on in 3 minutes." An assistant interrupted them by passing the group by and so the punk princess was more than glad to excuse herself from that strange reunion and walked on.
What the hell was that about?! She thought with a puzzled look while even Ric Flair had just given her a "thumbs up" and she spotted in a corner Brooke and Cherry talking pointing at her and widely smiling at the self proclaimed dirty diva.
"Ash!" A painting Michelle approached her.
"'Chelle, if you're going to congratulate me or something like that I swear I let out a scream… they're all already creeping me out!"
"Oh no."
"What?"
"I was just coming out of the women's locker room a minute ago and I heard Layla tell MVP that you and Jeff Hardy are expecting a baby!" She explained.
"What? OMG!" She instinctively put a hand on her mouth.
"That's crazy!"
"So now they all think… no way!"
The all-American diva sighed, "You know who spread the rumor, right?"
"Yeah, who else could have been… that's so fucked up!" She indignantly stomped a foot on the floor.
"Don't worry hun… now go to your match and in meanwhile I'll start to say that it's just a FALSE rumor, 'k? I'll see what I can do."
"Thanks Michelle, you're the best." And with a quick hug the punk princess sadly walked on to the curtain.
--------
The self proclaimed dirty diva breathlessly walked past the curtain and back to the backstage; she should have felt great for the match she had just won against Kristal, but instead she felt even lower at every smile or "thumbs up" she received, knowing that they were not for her win.
"Ash!"
She felt relieved at the familiar voices as Paul and Brian ran to her.
"Have you heard what they're saying?" The dark haired man asked concerned.
"Yeah," she sighed.
"And it's not, I mean, that's…" Brian trailed off.
"Of course it's not true!" She exclaimed.
"I told you so!" Paul rolled his eyes smacking the back of his best friend's neck.
"You would have known if that was the truth, guys." She sincerely said, "I would have told you myself."
"Yeah… I just thought that, you know, your 'secret' guy could be him…" Brian apologetically explained.
"Nope, it's not Jeff" she lightly sighed "and definitely not pregnant either."
"So what can we do to help?" Paul offered.
"Oh… could you just tell anyone you meet that this is just a stupid, foolish rumor?"
"Yeah, sure!"
"I don't think it'll work but whatever, let's try." She rolled her eyes.
"It's going to be okay, we'll help you." The blonde superstar surprised her with a hug.
"Thanks Bri, I love you guys."
"But that didn't stop you, did it?" A voice sarcastically said at their left and the trio turned to see MVP (who had just spoken), Kenny (roaring with laughter) and… the Rated R superstar in a corner next to them.
"You son of-"
"That's not worth it, Paul, never mind." She said holding her friend back by his arm.
"We'll see you later then?"
"Yeah, don't worry." She faintly smiled before meeting for a second her boyfriend's eyes who was just impassibly standing there while his "friends" kept on joking about her.
She stared at him hoping for a reaction that didn't arrive and then she could see that something had just caught his attention, something that he didn't like judging from his expression, and she found herself approached by… her former boyfriend.
"Ash, we need to talk." Matt softly said.
"Yeah," she weary sighed.
"Let's go somewhere more private?" He offered glancing at the trio in front of them.
"Sure," she shrugged as he led the way by placing his arm around her waist.
"What's wrong with you, man?" MVP asked to the world heavyweight champion, "You look like you're ready to kill someone."
"Yeah." Kenny agreed.
"Nothing, absolutely nothing." He angrily stated and left.
--------
"So…" the older Hardy brother casually started.
"Listen Matt, it's only a stupid rumor whatever you've heard about me and Jeff, okay?" She rolled her eyes, already tired of that situation.
"Yeah," he lightly chuckled "I thought so… I mean I know you both would have told me in case, right?"
"Yeah, sure." She tried to smile as Jeff's words came back to her mind: Don't wait too long, it's worse if he just found out.
"Actually I wanted to know if you're okay… I don't get who on earth could come up with something like that and why…"
"I've been better" she sighed before adding with a light smile, "but it's not like I'm not used to hear trash talking about me, right? I'll survive. But thanks for checking on me." She sincerely concluded.
"Anytime," he chuckled before pulling her in a friendly hug "you're an amazing person Ashley Massaro."
"Thanks… brother in law?" She joked playfully rolling her eyes to light up the situation.
"Am I interrupting something?" Someone asked stepping inside the almost empty men's locker room.
"What do you want Edge? Don't you have your private room?" Matt immediately changed his tone.
"1) It's none of your business and 2) I need Kenny's kneepad, I forgot mine." He blankly responded raising an eyebrow at his girlfriend.
"Call me if you need anything then, okay?" The older Hardy sweetly said to Ashley, ignoring the other man.
"Yeah, thanks." She said embarrassed by the situation, then closed the door behind him. "Your kneepads are on the small table in your locker room." She stated.
"I know."
"So what, you were keeping an eye on me?" She raised an eyebrow.
"I don't know, should I?"
"Oh please." She rolled her eyes.
"You're an amazing person Ashley Massaro." He sarcastically quoted.
"That's ridiculous."
"He still likes you."
"Are you going crazy or what?" She shook her head, "If you forgot, he was the one to leave me."
"Then stop go after him."
"I don't! That's absurd, I was just thanking him!" She exasperatedly said.
"Yeah, the knight with the shining armor." He rolled his eyes.
"At least he did something instead of just watching as your friends insulted me." She stated with her hands on her hips.
He just rolled his eyes, knowing that she was right.
"As you wish." She nodded and opened the door, then slammed it behind her.
The noise startled another blonde diva who was just hanging around the locker room waiting for her in-ring moment and she curiously glanced after the punk princess.
"Ashley, wait! Where the hell are you going?" He called out rushing after her when an assistant stopped him to announce that his match was up next.
"Fuck." He muttered under his breathe.
But that little scene was enough to wipe the smirk off Kelly's face… there was definitely something more than what she had witnessed a week before between those two… and she had to do something more about it then.
